A Sub-Picosecond Precision Laser-Based Test Station for The Measurement of Silicon Detector Timing Performances

摘要

In the last years, and in particular in view of the next generation of experiments at the future high luminosity particle colliders, the need of new tracking detectors with enhanced timing capabilities has strongly emerged, as these detectors will permit a proper reconstruction of tracks and vertices in events where a very large number of particles is present. Some LHC experiments, in view of their future upgrades, are considering as appropriate for their vertex detectors silicon pixel sensors with time resolutions in the range from 10 to 50 picoseconds. Such detectors are starting to become available as the result of many R&D projects around the world. However the laboratory testing tools to precisely characterize these devices are not always adequate for this purpose, often lacking in accuracy in both the space and time domain. In this paper we will describe a new laboratory setup based on an ultra-short pulse duration, 1030 nm wavelength, laser-based light source able to emulate the energy deposit of charged particles inside a silicon detector and all the ancillary equipment used to precisely measure their space and time performance.